Wednesday, September 26, 2012

This time of year, there's not much left of my summer crops in the garden. The fall crops are starting to come along nicely, but eggplant has stopped flowering, my peppers are finishing coloring up, and my zucchini plants are full of blossoms that will never mature into zucchini.

Squash blossoms are very tasty. Stuffed with cream cheese, dipped in egg, rolled in Italian seasoned breadcrumbs (or panko) and lightly pan fried, they are a delicate appetizer worthy of the most discriminating gourmand.

But on top of a sauce-less pizza, they are just as lovely.

(The yellow part is the zucchini blossom).

These little pizzas were topped almost entirely from the remaining produce from our garden... tomatoes, thinly sliced zucchini, purple onions, fresh herbs (basil, oregano, parsley), and heavily dotted with glorious cream cheese. Marinara sauce would have overpowered the baby vegetables on this pizza.

The blossoms were a really great surprise; very fresh.

Earthy crunchy cheesy chewy goodness right there.

So pluck a bunch of blossoms, throw them on your favorite pizza crust and enjoy one last glorious taste of summer.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Every year around this time, we get several mousey visitors, and through their fatal attraction to peanut butter, they're usually all dispatched to that great mouse nest in the sky within a few days of their arrival.

But this year, after claiming two victims, our trap has been silent as a... well, you know. We've got a peanut butter laden trap next to every place this mouse has left his signature, and each day we're amazed to see it still empty, surrounded by fresh... er... sign.

Last night I actually saw the mouse walk over to a trap, sniff the peanut butter from afar, and back away.

The little bugger doesn't like peanut butter!

Clearly we've had a tactical failure in underestimating our enemy; he's a true foodie. This, of course, means war, as I don't want to sacrifice my good cheese for the refined palate of the vermin's last meal. But if that's what it takes to reclaim the territory of my pantry in the name of humanity, then let the siege begin.

"How can I ever express the happiness of the marriage that is joined together by the Church, strengthened by an offering, sealed by a blessing, announced by angels and ratified by the Father? ... How wonderful the bond between two believers with a single hope, a single desire, a single observance, a single service! They are both brethren and fellow-servants; there is no separation between them in spirit or flesh; in fact they are truly two in one flesh and where the flesh is one, one is the spirit." Tertullian (Ad Uxorem, II, VIII, 6-8).

“A good wife is Heaven’s last, best gift to man, his angel and minister of graces innumerable, his gem of many virtues; her voice his sweetest music, her smiles his brightest day, her kiss the guardian of his innocence, her arms the pale of his safety, the balm of his health, the sure balsam of his life; her industry his surest wealth, her economy his safest steward, her lips his faithful counselor, her bosom the softest pillow of his cares, and her prayers the ablest advocate of Heaven’s blessing on his head.” - Jeremy Taylor